my daughters have used a variety of frames over the years including chamelon, coves and dialled PA/alpines all great for what you want.
I do have a 15.5 PA in 853 tubes for sale please see my profile for ad and pics, ta.

As I’m not trying to flog you my old tat I’ll proffer an impartial opinion. 😉
Cotic bFe will be great if running 140mm ish forks.Could look at Ns surge also.
If 100mm ish could be afformentioned Krisis or dmr omen or nukeproof snap.

I was thinking of starting with at 100mm because that is the fork we have and then upgrading next year to something longer. A frame with some flexibility would be ideal, would a small Bfe be rubbish with a shorter fork or just missing the point?

My lad is in need of a new bike if for no other reason than so I can actually ride my own bikes! Life is complicated by what he thinks he wants to do with it, ride around on the street doing tricks with his mate, local pump track, park, dirt etc. and be capable of actually being ridden up and down hill at a trail centre. So tall order for a single bit of kit.

I’ve done a bit of research and seems to me something like a 4X style bike might fit the bill without anything being hopelessly compromised. That line of thinking took me to a custom build using something like an Identiti Krisis frame, we already have most of the other expensive bits. Then I was doing some poking around on the web for other reasons and up popped a Cotic BFe, so I thought get a small frame and that might do the job.

Wondering what the panels views are on the above frames or are there some other options I’ve overlooked.

Bfe’s pretty slack to start off with so won’t turn into a shopping trolley with 100mm and will actually be better for street/dirt jumping.It just might make the bb a little low for riding trails,I’m sure theres people running 100mm who can give a definative opinion.

I used to ride with a few lads who would use jump / 4x bikes for XC when needed, just stand up and pedal all the way up to the top of afan..!. of course you could just get a longer seatpost I’d go that route as it doesn’t work as well the other way.

One word….. Charge Blender.
Ok, two words.. its a fantastic frame, nice and forgiving, strong as anything for dirt and general ragging. I’ve done lots of xc on mine. It’s a great frame.
The krisis sounds good. I had a jeckyl which I loved.

Sounds like your going along the right lines. I picked up a second hand Chromag stylus the other year and finally got it built up in january. It’s been amazing for everything. Forks down to 110 and the seat right down it’s been great for belting around the street and jumping. Pikes at 140mm for peak district rides. The full suss hasn’t had a sniff all year!!! Just noticed there’s a nearly new stylus on eBay this morning. I’m tempted and I already have one. It appears bombproof. Seen them being ridden in whistler bike park too with lyriks. Pretty versatile !

DMR Trailstar would be ideal, what you describe is basically what I used mine for. Perfect with a set of u-turn Pikes. Seat up, forks down and it climbs well enough, seat down and forks out and it’s so much fun. May as well post up a pic of it in DJ mode since we all love posting photos of our bikes 😛

If he’s riding a lot of park, DJ and street I think the Surge, BFe etc would be a bit too slack for that. Having said that the Surge is a really nice frame and I’ve only tried one with 160mm forks, so maybe actually with them wound in a bit it would be ok?

Another vote for a Charge Blender, sounds perfect for the intended use, i had one 1×10 with u turn pikes and a long Thomson post and used it for everything last winter from bmx to xc to full on downhill on the dirt 1:04 track (super tavi at gawton). No bike like this is going to excel at xc due to seat angle, shortish wheelbase and low standover but it will get the job done.